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Article: Semi-staged Handel, with care
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- October 17, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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These are, of course, lean times for arts organizations and
Boston Baroque made a pragmatic and sensible choice this year in
picking Handel's "Amadigi di Gaula" for its annual semi-staged
Baroque opera production in Jordan Hall. The work's modest
proportions, only four vocal leads, helped to keep the price tag
reasonable, and yet its status as a rarely spotted Handel opera also
made its performance something of a novelty. Last night's traversal
may have been the work's first airing in Boston.
Admittedly, it's not impossible to see why this opera has not
vaulted to the front ranks of the Handel revival. Its libretto, very
freely adapted from the medieval "Amadis of Gaul," is rather clunky ...